Father in Yemen dies from heartbreak struggling to feed his family

Struggling to feed his family, a father of seven in Yemen left his home early in the morning in search of food for his children, only to return back dead.

With no salary for five months and no other means of getting money, Mohammad al-Quhayme turned to the streets on Tuesday to look for food for his five daughters and two sons. Hours later, Quhayme collapsed on the ground for an unknown reason.

After relatives found his body, Quhayme was rushed to the hospital where doctors said he had died from a heart attack.

“We were shocked! No one saw this coming, there was nothing wrong with him,” his brother told Al Arabiya English.

Before his death, Quhayme lived in al-Hawak district in the western district of Hudaydah where he worked as a teacher.

A humanitarian crisis

Like Quhayme, many others have gone through similar struggles.

Since the turmoil began in the country, thousands of workers have been staging strikes and sit-ins despite the conflict that has so far killed more than 10,000 people since September 2014, amid a severe economic and humanitarian crisis.

The United Nations’ Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, said in a statement in February that the conflict has led to rising food and fuel prices as well as a plummeting of purchasing power considering “non-payment of salaries in the public sector for over six months.”

According to World Health Organization, 80 percent of the population is in need of aid, while prior to the war, over 50 percent of the population lived in poverty.

Famine

Additionally, shocking images of malnourished children and families reduced to skin and bone continue to circulate on social media as hundreds suffer from famine and malnutrition.

The United Nations World Food Program warned last year “at least seven million people - a quarter of the population - are living under emergency levels of food insecurity.”